Living Blossoms

+ Yep - we made it! We got home around 9:15 or so Wednesday night. Even though it was actually 4:15am Greece time, we managed to stay awake on the drive from the airport and tell Mom a little about our trip. It was SO GOOD to sleep in our own super-comfy bed that night! We had no trouble falling asleep (although I did stay up to watch an episode of Law & Order that I hadn't seen, which meant I had been up for over 24 hours by the time I fell asleep!), but we've been unable to sleep in since we got back, giving us less than 8 hours both nights so far. Considering we were up for so long the day we came home... yeah. Coffee has been our friend since we've been home.

+ So... life at home is great, especially since we're still on vacation. Yesterday we made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and grilled bagels with cream cheese. That was the first "real" breakfast we'd had in a month, and it was SO good. Lunch was at Chick-Fil-A - YUM - and then we went to church because the girl who's filling in for me had some questions. We also had to say hi to Ken, of course, and tell him all about our trip.

Then we went to see Up, which, until I saw that several of you absolutely adored it, I didn't have much desire to see. Well, we loved it too! What a great story. We had intended to go to Steak 'n' Shake after, but ended up sitting in front of some friends from church at the movie, and they invited us to join them for dinner at Olive Garden. They asked us all about our trip and then even bought our dinner! Rock on! Though honestly the coolest part was seeing all the pics on the walls there, of Tuscany, of the Roman Pantheon, etc., and saying to each other, "WE'VE BEEN THERE!" =oD Italy has been at the top of my list of places I want to go for a VERY long time, and now I'VE BEEN THERE. And I'd love to go back someday.

After dinner we went back to the theater to watch Star Trek. I think that was the only time in my life I've been to see two movies in the theater in one day, but since it wasn't the weekend movies were half price, so we didn't feel too guilty about it. We both quite liked Star Trek, but only if we didn't actually think of it as Star Trek, since they basically annihilated everything that is already in the ST canon. As a stand-alone movie, it was good. The guy who played McCoy was fantastic. The guy who played Kirk was hard to take seriously because he reminded me so much of DiNozzo on NCIS. Zachary Quinto looked a lot like Spock, but I couldn't take him seriously because apparently he will always be Sylar to me.

+ Oh, one other thing that happened yesterday is that my car wouldn't start. Yeah. I'm honestly not surprised since it wasn't started for over 3 weeks and had been having some minor issues before we left, but it was still frustrating. Isaac replaced the spark plugs and the distributor cap and then it started working. Whew! You know, he really is an amazing man, that husband of mine.

+ I know there was more to tell you, but I've forgotten it all. Oh well. Next time. =o)

+ Ah, Monday. I actually like Mondays because I don't have to go to work till Tuesday. The only thing I don't like about Mondays is that Isaac has to work. Thus, I am momentarily husbandless.

+ I finally got to see Twilight on Saturday! I managed to convince Isaac to go with me since we had to go all the way across town anyway, and we have a gift card for a theater over there. (I'm sure the proximity to Steak 'n' Shake didn't hurt either.) I think he actually liked it. I liked it even more than I expected. All my friends have been saying a few parts are incredibly cheesy, but even those parts didn't make me roll my eyes. (I mean, if I'm going to a movie about vampires, I'm already suspending mucho disbelief.) I think I actually like the movie better than the book because in the movie you can pretend Bella & Edward's relationship is actually based on something tangible. Charlie cracked me up. Edward started out SO UGLY but got cuter as the movie went on - I think it's because they laid off the makeup? I loved all the Cullen casting, and although Bella is too pretty, I like that actress too. She was a believable Bella. I'm looking forward to New Moon though, because I love Jacob. I thought the kid they got to play him was a great choice.

It was fun watching it in a Jacksonville theater, since Jax is mentioned so often. I hadn't even thought about it until the first time Renee said, "You'll love Jacksonville, Honey." A bunch of people in the theater yelled, "Yeah!" and "Woo-hoo!" When Bella said, "I don't want to go to Jacksonville!" we all booed. LOL. Actually, the Cullens could do quite well here. Yes, it is sunny most of the time, but if they lived in Riverside or 5 Points, no one would think anything of the sparkling. They could just tell people they're living art, or flamboyantly gay, or something, and everyone would just accept it. And if they wanted to go to the beach and people asked why they were sparkling, they could just say that they live in 5 Points, and people would be like, "Ah, I see." LOL.

+ Saturday we also did a photo shoot at Isaac's office. I got some business-y pictures that I really think will work for a more commercial comp. card. I hope to get a shopping one and perhaps a working out one pretty soon.

+ We walked to church yesterday! That was pretty cool. It was pouring afterward though, so we hitched a ride with my parents. I also ended up singing with the worship team, spur-of-the-moment again. We sang the first song and they were vocally very quiet because they had NO sopranos and were down the loudest man too, so at the greeting time I asked the worship leader if he would like me to sing. He said that was probably a good idea, LOL. Isaac said it was much better after I went up there because you could actually hear the melody! Heh.

+ I'm going to Charleston, SC this week! My mom has business up there, so she, Grams and I are going up Thurs.-Sat. None of us have ever been there, so we're quite excited. We'll have just about 2 whole days there, so hopefully we can see quite a bit. I also hope it's not as FREEZING COLD as it was when we went to Savannah 2 years ago, but I'm bringing a scarf and gloves just in case.

+ I went to a MAC Cosmetics store Saturday to get some freckle-hiding foundation that actually matches my pale skin. They actually had one! I've never spent that much on makeup before though. Oy. To think some people do that all the time! I've now used some department store brands in this process of finding a foundation, and can officially attest that Mary Kay's is just as good as those are - at half the price. If only MK had a really thick-coverage foundation like MAC, I'd be using theirs and happily saving money.

+ I had just a short CVS run this week. I guess after giving away the whole store on Black Friday they decided to tone it down this week. I just got 4 cans of Febreze Air Effects for $1.29 total. And apparently I have more ECB than I thought, thanks to BF. I went into the store on BF (well, actually, we went on Thanksgiving) with 27 ECB, spent $4, and came out with 50.39 ECB, 2 Cover Girl makeup items, 1 Maybelline makeup item, 1 King Size Reese's, 3 Gatorade G2, 1 Philips ear buds, 1 Johnson's Softlotion, 2 Loreal lip gloss, 1 Sally Hansen nail polish, 2 Colgate Total, 2 Aussie conditioner, 1 Garnier facial scrub,1 Playtex tampons, 2 Altoids, and 1 Shick Quattro razor/trimmer! They basically paid me $20 to take all that stuff. I. LOVE. THAT. STORE.

+ We put up our Christmas stuff last night! That's always so exciting. Last year we didn't put it up till December 9th because we were too busy. November 30th is much more acceptable. I do so love the Christmas tree lights and the nativity scene. It's funny too because I always think I have more ornaments than I really do, so when they're all on the tree I feel like some are missing. It's because one of my family's Christmas traditions was that each year my bros and I would get a new ornament. When you have 4 kids with at least one ornament from each year they've been alive, plus all my parents' ornaments, that's a very full tree. Now it's just mine and the few that are Isaac's. Speaking of which, I need to order his for this year. I know just what I'm going to get him.

+ There was more I wanted to say, but I've forgotten. So, I'm off to make lunch. Have a great week!

Yay for a normal post!

+ Our Halloween night was fun, but felt nothing like Halloween. We had fun though.

+ Saturday morning we woke up early to go with Isaac's coworkers to the Florida Baptist Children's Home. We cooked a meal on the grill and then served it. Sadly, we didn't get to interact with the kids (some orphans, some temporarily there till a parent gets their act together) much. This was my first visit to an American orphanage. I felt bad for the kids there, of course, but it just reaffirmed my desire to adopt kids from other countries. To the orphans in El Salvador, the FBCH would be like heaven. The kids don't go hungry, and they have house parents so they get attention and affection, and they're taught the Truth, not the cult of Mary.

Saturday afternoon I slept for 4 hours on the couch! That was not expected, but much-needed. We watched Ghostbusters, which I hadn't seen since I was a teenager. That night Isaac went to play football with some friends, and I watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I hadn't seen since it was in theaters last year. It is amazing that that movie is 2 hours long and there is SO MUCH left out of it.

+ Sunday was pretty much engulfed by our Olympian Fun Fall Festival. After lunch we set up for it, which took so long we only had about an hour and a half between it and the actual festival. We had 13 kids come, though, and 6 of them don't attend church anywhere; their only exposure to God is through our club. We had a ton of candy left over again, so that was great. Hehe. I did face painting, and tried a few new things this year that went over big.

+ Monday's activities have slipped my mind, save for watching SNL's Presidential Bash that evening. Very entertaining.

+ Tuesday I voted in the morning and did not have to wait in line at all. Bwaha. I then went out to lunch at Olive Garden with Grams, Ange, and the kids. It'd been ages since I'd been there. I do love their Five Cheese Ziti al Forno, breadsticks, and raspberry lemonade. *licks lips* As mentioned the other day, we went to AAAC's house that night for a small election party, which was a total blast and an excuse to use the chocolate fountain again. =oD I was up way too late that night though, and I've paid for it since.

+ Yesterday I spent the day cocooned in the house. I felt like crap for staying up so late without being able to sleep in, and I was still royally ticked about the election results, so I did not want to see any news or newspapers. I was able to take a bit of a nap in the late afternoon, and I convinced Isaac to join me. We skipped the gym in favor of something more fun, and then finally went to see Fireproof. (We've been saying we were going to see it ever since it came out.) We were both pleasantly surprised by it. I had no idea it was funny, and I was expecting nearly all the actors to be bad, like in Facing the Giants. Instead, only a few of them were really wooden, and the rest, while not likely to win an Academy Award, were quite good. It was well-made too - as good as any indie film I've seen. And of course I bawled my eyes out. Hehe. I also had fun spotting people who were in Facing the Giants. We went to the movie at 7, and still hadn't had dinner, but thankfully it was free small popcorn day for people in their Movie Watcher club, so we snacked on that and then went to Steak 'n Shake. We hadn't been there in months, and they have 4 meals under $4 now - and they're good ones - so that was awesome. It was a great little impromptu date night. =o)

Oh yeah, and when we were on the highway heading down to the theater, we kept seeing all these cops go by very quickly, some with lights on, some without. We got around the bend and saw the cops (now all with lights on) blocking the entire highway. We were right behind them. We still don't know what was going on, but we saw them arrest 3 girls in their late teens/20s who looked stoned. We're guessing they were driving recklessly and, to have so many policemen there, probably refusing to pull over at first. Isaac was pretty freaked out, because the cops had their guns drawn and we were so close to them, but I figured any bullets would've had to go through 3 cop cars to get to us. Anyway, it made us late for the movie, but it was pretty exciting.

+ Someone in Greece bought one of my Supernatural shirts! That is so cool. What will be even cooler is if when we're there in June, I see her wearing it. Yeah, yeah, Greece is a decent-sized country, blah, blah, blah. It would still be cool.

+ Off to watch Survivor and then Supernatural. Happy almost-Friday!

When I did that silly, short survey the other day and said I ought to write one of my own, a few of you said I should. So, caving to peer pressure, I did. For those reading this on Facebook or who aren't on my LJ friends' list, I assure you that despite your being able to see my posts as two surveys in a row, there were other things between. You're just not allowed to see them. Hmm. I'm not sure if that will actually make you feel better...  ;o)

1. What are your first and middle names? Bethany Lynn
2. When you were a kid, did you wish you were named something else? If so, what? Oh, I had many I wished for. Tiffany, Jessica, Jasmine, and Jade were some. And I've been happy that my name is not any of those for well over a decade now. Hehe.
3. What is your favorite national pizza chain? Pizza Hut
4. How many pairs of shoes do you own? I really have no idea. More than I used to, that's for sure. I do have 20 or so pairs of flip-flops, but that includes my dressy ones.
5. What is one TV show you’ve seen at least one episode of, but you can’t stand? Big Brother
6. What’s your favorite cereal? Quaker Oatmeal Squares, Multi-Grain Cheerios, or Cookie Crisp.
7. Would you rather have temperatures above 100º or below 30º? Above 100, especially if I can go to the beach!
8. What is the best concert you’ve ever been to? Hanson's "Walk" Tour. Followed closely by dc Talk's "Jesus Freak" tour, which I got to see twice, and both times for free thanks to winning tickets from the same radio station 3 months apart!
9. Do you have a college degree? If so, what? A.A. in graphic design
10. What state is home to you? Even though WI, IL, MI and CT are like home too, FL is definitely my real home. I love it here so much!
( Read more... )

Haha, Mr. Monk so would not like that I ended this survey with 64 questions.  =o)

Edit to add: New survey questions from pansyprincess!
65. Have you ever walked out of a restaurant after being seated without ordering anything? If so, why? I know I have, more than once, but I can't think of any specific instance.
66. What's the worst injury you've gotten from an animal? I got a bad bite from a half-blind dog when I was very young - about 4 years old, I think. But despite that I've never had a fear of dogs, and always had an intense love for them!
67. Are you the type of person who enjoys rain or gets depressed by it? Enjoys greatly, unless it goes on for more than 3 days, in which case I start to get subdued and antisocial.
68. Do you enjoy animated films? Nearly always, at least if they're by Disney and/or Pixar and/or whoever made Shrek. Hehe.
69. How do you prefer your steak cooked? Medium if I plan on reheating leftovers, and medium well if I plan on eating the whole thing at the time.
70. What's the last thing you bought? My mom forced me to go to another Goodwill yesterday (the woman is an enabler! An enabler, I say!) and I got a totally cute recently-in-stores blue paisley tee (Daisy Fuentes brand, from Kohl's), some cute denim bermudas, and some really nice jeans. =oD